Holiday travel brings congestion, danger to Ohio roadways

2 wrecks reported in same general vicinity Sunday on I-75

This Thanksgiving, marked one of the busiest travel weekends the Tri-State has seen in years. Several wrecks were reported, including an accident on Interstate-75 north of Crittenden that left a man dead and a woman in the hospital.

“I'm just so sorry for those involved in the wreck, it’s just unfortunate it's a holiday and a weekend and everyone is in a mood and it’s just unfortunate things happen,” said stranded traveler Shital Parika.

The highway was at a stand-still for several hours. Peacher was trapped in the car and first responders had to extricate him from his car.

Earlier Sunday, another crash was reported in Crittenden around 11:30 a.m. when an 80-year-old man went off the road and struck a tree.

Authorities said that driver is listed in serious but stable condition.

The Gillum family said they ran on fumes to a gas station along I-75, after what should have been a five hour journey, took eight hours.

“We've been in stopped traffic ever since … coming all the way down,” said stranded traveler April Gillum. “We were really nervous having our grand-daughter with us, we didn't' know if we were going to walk or get help or anything because we were running out of gas, we almost got rear-ended out there once."

AAA said 46 million Americans traveled this Thanksgiving, the most since 2007, thanks to cheaper gas prices and the economy improving.

AAA also projected 82,000 more Ohioans traveled this Thanksgiving weekend. A 4.5 percent increase compared to last year.

“It's nice I haven't seen prices this low in a long time hopefully they stay this low. I don't like it up above three bucks it’s hard to deal with when you're on a budget,” said Ohio traveler Pete Dongell.

With another holiday travel season just around the corner drivers said they would rather be safe than sorry.

“I know there a lot of people on the road who have got to be careful, a lot of fatalities, I don't know I just wish safe driving,” said Parika.